Product: Orla DE 49 Flute Expander
Price Paid: EUR 75 (Euro) used
Submitted
12/22/2004
at
05:33am
by
Hans
Email: zoo666 at web<dot>de
Ease of Use
:
7
The basic functions are easy to use: "drawbars", buttons for percussion, chorus and tremolo, sliders for sustain and volume, programming presets. The MIDI functions (set a split point for the keyboard, chose a MIDI channel) are much more complicated, because they are controlled on on a second layer of the Buttons, but the second layer descriptions are not printed on the case. Without the manual there isn't any chance to find it out.
Features
:
7
The expander is made to emulate a drawbar organ very straight forward. So it has slide controls for the 8 sinus waves in the upper and the 4 in the lower section (upper: 16, 8, 5 1/3, 4, 2 2/3, 2, 1 3/5, 1', lower: 8, 4, 2, 1'). The slide controls are a small, but not noisy or scratchy. There are buttons for 3 upper and 3 lower presets, and 10 buttons for programmable general presets.
Also there are buttons for 4' and 2 2/3' percussion, motion effect ("chorus" and "tremolo"), and a mysterious function called "O.M.C." - this is kind of adding certain harmonies depending on the keys played in the upper and lower section; it's mostly useless.
On the back there are plugs for the external power supply, for mono output, and for MIDI in/thru. Also there's a power switch.
You can play the expander with any MIDI keyboard, can set the split point and chose MIDI channels for upper and lower. That's all.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
7
Now, the sound. It's not a Hammond. It's not even a Hammond clone. It's more like Bontempi, Farfisa, Wersi and other ogans made for nice playing at home.
If you are brave enough to make gigs at retirement homes, where elder people sit and drink their tea while you play Cha-Chas, Foxtrots, Waltzes and such kind of stuff, then the Orla is right that what you want. If you want to play at home with reasonable organ sounds then it's o.k. If you want to become a second John Lord or Jimmy Smith then you better get another gear.
The expander doesn't sound really bad, but it's too well-behaved, very clean and without a soul. And there's no kind of any overdrive sound. Definitely there is a need for pushing the sound by a good leslie effect. The onboard chorus effect is useable, but the tremolo effect is very bad. I bought a Danelectro Rocky Road and combined its fast rotary effect with the slow chorus of the Orla - this is a fine sound!
Reliability
:
8
The module seems reliable. I bought it used (I think it's built many years ago), and there weren't any malfunctions or damages at all. I can't imagine what can get broken at the module in normal use.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Had no contact with them. The manufacturer is settled in Italy, so I am not sure if I could even talk with them if I wanted.
Overall Rating
:
7
For the price I paid this module is o.k. I don't know if I would buy another, if this would get lost. But maybe I would.
I like the ease of use in the basic functions. The sound is good enough for my puposes. And in top of my piano it uses no place - especially compared with a real organ.
And I like the little "drawbars" which make it very simple to control the sound in an intuitive way. It's a very straight forward instrument.
BTW: You can look at the manufacturer's page at www.orla.it - I'm sure you instantly get an impression what kind of instruments they make and sell.
